SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

Five Questions: Pam Jolley, SAL Board President

By Simon Tran, Development Intern As Development Intern at Seattle Arts & Lectures, much of my time is spent writing grant renewals and working on mailings (lots of mailings…). Having major holidays fall during the duration of this internship, I’ve had practice folding letters and working a magical machine that meters the postage. But I […]

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“Black,” by WITS Student Anisa Rae Robinson

Black My color is the color of absence, silence. The memory of something you thought was there, but now it’s gone. The color of your mind when you’re in a deep rest. The color of shadows that follow you everywhere you go. My color tastes bitter and icky. My color is lovely. My color is […]

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WITS Voices: The Persona Poem and Fourth Graders

By Kathleen Flenniken, WITS Writer-in-Residence One of the most important attributes of art, and especially poetry, is the way it opens a door into another person’s life experience. A poem—a mere few lines sometimes—can create a more empathetic reader for life. My fourth grade students at View Ridge Elementary had the chance to “pretend” to […]

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Perfect Pairings: Creative Forces Combine in the WITS Broadsides Tour

By Laura Burgher, Writers in the Schools & Broadsides Project Intern I placed the final broadside up on the bookstand and took a step back. Patrons at Seattle Public Library’s Northgate Branch were already starting to show interest, craning their necks to take in the twenty-two framed artworks I just set atop the bookshelves, their […]

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Introductions: Anthony Doerr

The evening of Wednesday, November 18, SAL Director Ruth Dickey introduced acclaimed writer Anthony Doerr to a buzzing, brimming auditorium, at Benaroya Hall. Perhaps you, like me, were wary of All the Light We Cannot See. I picked it up because a friend recommended it and then was afraid to begin. A book about World […]

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An Intimate Evening with Tony

By Christina Gould, Patron Services Manager I shared “my boyfriend” with a sold out crowd at Benaroya Hall on November 18th. I would have been too shy to have a one-on-one date with him; being one of over 2500 in the cozy atmosphere of the S. Mark Taper Auditorium suited me just fine. I first became […]

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“Paris, Le Canal Saint-Martin,” by WITS Student Graeme Richards

Paris, Le Canal Saint-Martin Dark and silver clouds rule the sky over the dark winter city. The black bare trees reach for nothing and the murky water under the rusty iron bridge has no inhabitants. The streets have no wanderers and through the dark windows letting in the so-little sun into the dark rooms like […]

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Linda Pastan’s Breathless Words at The Center School

By Erin Langner, WITS Program Associate & Sonder Editor When Linda Pastan and I approached a classroom of The Center School, where she was about to speak, we were three minutes early. A teacher inside, in the gentlest, quietest whisper, asked if we wouldn’t mind waiting outside, for just two of those minutes. The students inside […]

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WITS Voices: Rainbow, Rainbow, Rainbow!

By Emily Bedard, WITS Writer-in-Residence On a recent day when the trees flashed a hundred hues against a cloudy Seattle sky, I entered a fourth grade WITS class, planning to play with color. We began by reading Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski, with its saturated, leaping language and its intricate, dreamlike […]

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Introductions: Linda Pastan

On November 10, Linda Pastan brought her quiet but powerful literary presence to McCaw Hall for SAL’s 2015/16 Poetry Series. SAL Associate Director Rebecca Hoogs introduced her and moderated their conversation that night. It is an honor and delight to introduce Linda Pastan, who is here to celebrate and read from poetry across her long career, including […]

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